I’m getting married in a few weeks and I’m over it.

Not the wedding, I can’t wait for that. It’s just all the pre-wedding fuss and carry-on I can do without.

Don’t get me wrong. When it comes to organising stuff, I’m on to it.

Give me a brew house production plan and I’ll make things happen – all 23 million litres a year of them.

But when it comes to my own wedding, I’ve completely underestimated how long it takes to pull together a seating plan, my dress is half-finished and deciding between pearl or crystal detailing on the bouquet – somebody save me.

Maybe I should have been born 500 years ago when the bride’s most important job was the beer. Who said they were Dark Ages?

Believe it or not, when a woman got engaged back then, one way she raised money for her dowry was to make a special beer to celebrate her special day.  

Her “Bride Ale” is where the word bridal comes from. Some people still make their own beer for their weddings. I haven’t got time to go that far, but we’ll certainly make sure there’s enough of the good stuff to go around.

Have you ever tried to cater for a party and wondered how much beer and wine you need? It’s not that easy to get the quantities right and to make sure you’ve got everyone’s tastes covered.

One easy option is to use a handy on-line ‘drinks calculator’ like the ones in these links:

http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator.jsp

http://www.thatsthespirit.com/en/drinks/party_calculator.asp

http://www.sherlocks.com/resources/party_planning_guide.php

When it comes to the beer, for a large crowd it’s always safe to go for the generic styles – a good, full-bodied ale, a universal premium lager and a low-alcohol beer should cater for most people’s tastes.

But whatever you do, don’t forget to be a responsible host.

Checking out these guidelines will help:

http://www.drinkresponsibly.co.nz/know-your-drinking/whats-in-a-drink

As for our honeymoon, the plan’s simple. Centuries ago the bride and groom drank honey mead for a lunar month after their wedding to help make them fertile – which is where the term honeymoon comes from.

We’ll be happy to settle for a couple of weeks on a tropical beach – just the two of us and a few cold lagers – sweet.

And while I’m busy becoming Mrs. Park and sitting by the surf, DB’s technical manager Doug Banks will guest blog next month.

Til then,

Cheers and beers,

Beth

Feel as though your glass is constantly half empty with all this global meltdown talk?

Right now I bet we could all do with some cheering up to stop us drowning in all of the  “doom and gloom” messages.

I reckon the best way to feel your glass is at least half full is to top it up with a great beer … served in a classy glass.

Classy glass …?

Truth is, unless you drink your beer out of a good glass, you’ll be lucky if your tastebuds pick up anything except the sensation of cold, wet fluid with a hint of bitterness. 

What a waste!

There’s no better way to appreciate delights of the amber fluid than to pour it into a fresh clean glass that’s the right shape to bring out the best in your favourite tipple.

Drinking from a glass means you can savour beer’s colour, clarity, head (no smuttiness please) aroma and taste. If you choose the right shape and size of glass for your beer, it’ll make it look, taste and smell even better. 

Don’t be put off by the technical jargon. Here are some simple tips to make sure your tipple tantalises your taste buds.

The Pilsner

• Typically tall, slender and shaped a bit like a trumpet, the traditional pilsner glass is probably the best all around glass for enjoying a lager.
• It showcases the beer’s colour and clarity, helps keep it carbonated, and creates a foam head to trap the aroma of the hops
• A great glass for beers like Heineken, Budvar and Amstel

The Mug and Pint Glass

• A larger, more rounded glass is more suitable for heavier, maltier beers like Monteith's Original Ale, Celtic Red, Tui and DB Draught
• For serious beer drinking sessions, the ‘mug’ holds plenty of beer, is nice and sturdy for toasting with, easy to drink from and holding it by its handle helps keep the beer cold longer.
• Like the jug, the pint glass has a wide mouth which makes it easy to drink from. It’s also a popular generic beer glass because of its relatively low price.

The Snifter

• What better way to enjoy a Monteith’s Winter Doppelbock or Black than in a snifter glass?
• Used for brandy and cognac, these wide-bowled and stemmed glasses have tapered mouths that are perfect for capturing the aromas of strong ales and dark malty beers
• Snifters also have plenty of room in them to swirl and agitate the volatile aromas

Bavarian Weizen Glass

• Nothing beats serving Weizenbier (wheat beer such as Erdinger) in an authentic ‘Bavarian Weizen’ glass 
• These are classy glasses – tall and curvy, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. Their shape stimulates yeasty carbonation, shows the beer’s cloudiness and has room for its big, fluffy head

Wine Glass

When it comes to fully appreciating the aromas and flavours of beer, some beer experts say that nothing beats a large wine glass.

I’m prepared to grin and beer it – as long as my wine glass is at least half full!

Til next time

Cheers and beers,

Beth

Secretly February is my favourite time of the year. The weather’s great, you’ve forgotten the stress of Christmas, memories of the holidays are still fresh and you’re over the initial shock of getting back to work.

February reminds me of school. Once I got my head around the idea of another whole year of study, I couldn’t wait to open up my new stationery. A clean slate.

School or not, each New Year is a chance to try new things and learn new stuff.

And you don’t have to be in a classroom to be thirsty for knowledge, particularly when it comes to educating yourself about beer.

Learning about the magic of beer – how it’s made, how to look after it and how best to enjoy it – may not be as demanding as Year 13 calculus. But in my book, it’s an essential life skill. And if they’d taught it at school, I sure as hell would have paid more attention.

That’s why I’m so passionate about our exciting new project, Beer School.

When the DB Beer School kicks off in 2009, it’ll be a chance for people in the trade to boost their beer knowledge. They’ll be able to take on-site classes on anything from “Science 101 – How We Brew Beer” and “The Art of Pouring a Pint” to “Geography – Mapping Out the Origins of Our Beer Styles”.

It’s the kind of knowledge that’s critical these days when more and more of us don’t just want to buy a beer, we want to know we’re buying into a top quality beer experience.

The good news is you don’t have to work in a bar or be part of the trade to whet your appetite for beer knowledge.  If you’re keen to learn more about beer, there’s plenty of ways to do it – from text books and tours to all sorts of internet sites.

To help you sort the froth from the substance, here are some of my recommendations:

• Charles Bamforth http://foodscience.ucdavis.edu/bamforth/whoAmI.html

Charlie Bamforth is an international, all-round authority on beer.  I’ve been lucky enough to hear him speak a few times and I love his fascinating anecdotes, dry humour and infectious beer enthusiasm. He keeps an audience hooked for hours and his beer books do the same. Who would’ve thought that something titled Food, Fermentation and Micro Organisms would be a real page turner?

So if you’re into reading, try to get your hands on these beer books:

Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing

Beer: Health and Nutrition

Scientific Principles of Malting & Brewing

o       www.beerexpert.co.uk

This is a useful website without too many bells and whistles that will give you a great perpective on UK beers.

 A team of UK beer aficionados brewed up BeerExpert to help beer lovers navigate the heady waters of the beer world. Their site has loads of practical info about the best beers and their history, beer festivals, cooking with beer and home brewing tips.

o       www.herestobeer.com

o       www.beerconnoisseur.com

Clever animation on these two interactive US resources helps you explore the world of beer and have fun while you soak up some beer essentials. Click on one of a range of beers and a glass fills up, giving you loads of information on that beer’s style,  flavour, characteristics and history. 

If you’re into teaming beer and food, select a food or a beer and the site recommends some excellent matches.

If you want to deepen your beer knowledge, Beer Connoisseur lets you enrol in an on-line beer education programme – an expert’s guide to appreciating beer. Made up of a series of classes including the brewing process, beer styles, storage and the perfect pour, glassware, beer and food pairings – this site tracks your progress and even quizzes you on how much you’ve learnt at the end of the class.

• http://www.wildaboutwellington.co.nz/boutique%20beer%20tasting%20tour.htm

There’s nothing like a hands-on beer learning experience.  I haven’t been lucky enough to give this a go yet, but Wild about Wellington Boutique Beer Tasting and Tour sounds like an excellent way to learn more about beer and have a few drinks along the way!

NZ beer expert and writer Neil Miller takes you on a three-hour walking tour of the city which includes visiting a working brewery and some top bars. Most importantly you get to sample and learn about magnificent beer and food matches along the way.

 Some DB girls who took the tour recently gave it rave reviews and it’s definitely top of my list of things to do the next time I’m in the capital.

So, whether formal study is part of your plan in 2009 or not, there’s never been a better time to learn a whole lot more about beer and how best to enjoy it.

Til next time,

Cheers and beers,

Beth

I love January. It’s laid-back bach time. And if you’re anything like our crew, you probably think more about what beers you’ll pack in the boot than the food you’ll chuck in the chilly bin.

Next thing you know, after a great day out fishing and swimming, the kids are in bed, it’s almost nine o’clock and nothing’s been sorted for the adults’ dinner.

The last thing you want to do on your relaxing summer holiday is to be worrying about what to slap together each night for tea.

As good as a few beers are after a day in the sun, a liquid diet alone won’t cut it.  Mind you, when we crank up the barbie, beer often features as part of the food.

Here are a few easy, beer-infused family favourites you could try this summer.

Steamed Green-lip Mussels Infused with Chili, Ginger and Beer

Ingredients:

1 kg green-lip mussels in their shells
¾ cup Monteith’s Pilsner Beer
1 teaspoon hot red chili, chopped
1 teaspoon sliced ginger, preferably fresh
1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon sugar

Oil for frying
Pinch of salt

Fresh coriander to serve

Method:

Clean the mussels thoroughly. In a large wok or saucepan, gently fry the ginger, chili, cumin and turmeric. Add the beer and sugar and bring to the boil before adding the mussels. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer for around 5 – 10 minutes until the shells have opened. Serve with crusty bread in a large bowl, drizzled with cooking juices, and topped with fresh coriander. Serves four.

Pork Ribs and Beer

For the marinade:

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons Monteith’s Celtic Red
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 clove garlic
¼ teaspoon black pepper

About 1.3kg of meaty pork spareribs or loin back ribs

Method:

Combine marinade ingredients. Place ribs in plastic bag and put bag in a shallow dish leaving top open. Pour marinade over ribs and close the bag. Marinate in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight, turning the bag occasionally to distribute marinade.

Remove ribs from marinade and reserve it. Grill ribs in the centre of the BBQ cooking plate for 1 to 1½ hours or until tender, brushing with reserved marinade during the last 20 minutes. Cut ribs into 2 or 3 pieces each. Serves four.

Fire-cracker Salmon - Pepper-crusted Salmon with a Maple Glaze

This easy marinade creates a candied salmon fillet that melts in your mouth under a ‘fire-cracker’ black pepper crust.

For the marinade:

¾ cup maple syrup
¼ cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon lager beer such as Export Gold or Monteith’s Golden Lager
4 salmon fillets, about 175g each, skin and bones removed
¼ cup cracked black pepper
Vegetable oil spray

Method:

Whisk together the syrup and soy sauce in a small bowl. Pour into a large plastic re-sealable bag, and add the fillets. Press out the air and seal the bag tightly, then turn it several times to distribute the marinade. Set in a large bowl and refrigerate for as long as possible (at least four hours, but 24 to 48). Turn salmon every few hours.

Place pepper on a small plate. Remove salmon from marinade and generously spray both sides of each fillet with oil. Press top side only into cracked pepper to coat. Grill fillets, pepper side up, on a hot BBQ for about six minutes, turning once halfway through. Avoid overcooking the fillets. Salmon is best when it has turned a pale pink, but is still moist throughout. Serve immediately on warm plates. Serves four.

Tip: The longer the salmon marinates (up to 48 hours) the better it is. But remember - only pepper the salmon just before cooking.

Portobello Black Bean Burgers with Corn Salsa

For the corn salsa:

1½ cups corn, fresh or frozen (thawed)
3 tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
1½  tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon Monteith’s New Zealand Lager or Radler Bier
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon salt

For the burgers:

1 package (around 280g) portobello mushrooms, wiped clean
1¼ cups canned black beans, rinsed and drained
¼ cup chopped green chilies
3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
1½ teaspoons chili powder
½  teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¾ cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
vegetable-oil cooking spray
2 whole-grain pitas, halved
1 avocado, sliced

Method:

Combine salsa ingredients and set aside. In a food processor, chop mushrooms into extra fine pieces. Add beans, chilies, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, salt, onion powder, breadcrumbs and egg. Process until fully combined. Liberally coat the BBQ flat plate with cooking spray. Form four patties, then gently then place on the BBQ. Grill over medium heat for five minutes each side, or until a crisp crust forms and the burger is heated through. Place each burger into a pita half with some salsa and avocado slices. Makes four burgers.

Beer-Battered Fish

For the batter:

¾ cup flour, sifted

2 eggs

½ cup Monteith’s Golden Lager or Radler Bier (Tui works well too!)

For the fish:

Four pieces of firm fish like snapper or terakihi

Flour for dusting
Oil for frying

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Break in the eggs and beat with a whisk or fork, adding the beer little by little until the batter is the consistency of thick cream.

Dust the fish with flour and shake off the excess then dip fillets into the batter.

Drain off excess batter in a colander then deep-fry until golden brown.

Dust with salt and pepper to taste. Serves four.

Here’s to a great summer holiday!

Til next time,

Cheers and beers,

Beth

Christmas 1983 – my older brother and I decorating the Christmas tree

Watching all my excited young nieces and nephews count down the days ’til Santa comes reminds me of the time when I was a kid and our parents popped next door for a few quiet ales with the neighbours one Christmas Eve.

Left home alone in front of the telly (actually my older brother was in charge), we watched in horror as the news flashed up that Santa had disappeared off the radar and might not make it down the chimney with our presents.

My four-year-old brother was inconsolable. So the only thing to do was to drag Mum and Dad back home to calm him down.

They duly tucked him up in bed and reassured him there was no way Santa would miss out on finding his way to the bottle of beer, slice of Nana’s Christmas cake and carrot for Rudolf that they’d be leaving out for him.  Sure enough, the next morning only an empty beer glass and a few crumbs were left – along with our presents underneath the Christmas tree.

Back then, nobody made a fuss about looking after Santa’s sizeable waistline or the merits of giving him a well-deserved beer when they catered for his Christmas visit.

But in recent years some ‘health-conscious’ parents have decided not to put out a beer for Santa - all in the misguided belief that it’s bad for his health.

In my opinion they couldn’t be more wrong.

Beer bellies, lager love-handles and even ruddy noses like Santa’s have all given beer a bad rap. But it’s a misunderstood drink. 

In moderate amounts, beer actually benefits both your body, and your soul.

Most of beer’s negative associations are to do with lifestyle choices, not the brew itself.  In fact, Nana’s Christmas cake would have had far more calories than the beer we left out for Santa! 

Beer has almost no fat and zero cholesterol.  It can be less fattening than wine and RTDs, and contains less sugar and more dietary fibre than they do, thanks to the barley in it.

The malt is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially B6 and B12, and 500ml of beer meets about 30% of an average person’s daily need for vitamins.  The presence of hops can provide beneficial sedative effects and their bitterness can help digestion.

So you don’t have to feel guilty about having a beer or two during the festive season. 

Studies I’ve read about alcohol even show moderate drinkers are less prone to stress and heart disease than many teetotallers and heavy drinkers are.

Alcohol consumed in moderate amounts reduces fat deposits in blood vessel walls and also reduces cholesterol levels in your blood which can counteract cardiac diseases and stabilise your blood pressure.

And let’s not forget that beer is around 95 per cent water – it doesn’t get much better than that.

The high water content and relatively low alcohol content compared to wine and spirits makes it a long, thirst-quenching drink – perfect for Santa after a long-haul flight from the North Pole.

Beer’s ideal ionic composition also helps prevent gall and kidney stones. With all that water, it’s also a diuretic which can help keep the urinary tract open and prevent infection.  Beer also has traces of zinc, copper and iron which can help with prostrate gland problems. And hops in beer have been linked to helping prevent blood clots.

So, for the good of your body and your soul, take time to enjoy a few quiet beers at  those pre-Christmas functions this year – just make sure you also take care and drink responsibly.

At our house, we certainly won’t hold back from putting out a well-deserved beer for Santa this Christmas – and it’ll probably be the new low-carb Export 33!

‘Til next time,

Merry Christmas

Beth

They say a fine head of hair is your crowning glory, but growing a moustache?

When guys start paying too much attention to what’s sprouting on their upper lips, what’s with that?  Don’t get me wrong. As we charge through Mo-vember towards Christmas, I’m all for supporting a good cause.

But when these brewery blokes start preening their egos and proving they’re “real men” by seeing who can handle the biggest mo, it’s enough to put me off my beer. 

In fact, what these Mo-vember blokes probably don’t realise is that facial hair can actually make their beer look as unappetising as they do. I’m talking about dead head – when a greasy moustache gives beer the kiss of death and makes it lose its fine head, its crowning glory.

The foam, or head, on a beer is special.  It gives you a tantalising foretaste of the beer’s flavour and freshness, trapping the aromas and imparting a smooth sensation when you take your first sip.

It’s produced by proteins in the malted barley and the release of carbon dioxide (or sometimes nitrogen) which forms tiny bubbles at the beer’s surface. Hops also help to stabilise the head formation and make it cling to the sides of the glass as you drink. 

But beer foam is fragile so handle it with care.  Dust, soapy residue, dirty glassware, oily fingerprints, traces of fatty food and, of course, greasy facial hair will all break down the surface of the beer’s head, making it go flat quickly and look like cold tea.

If you want to keep your own head while everyone else is losing theirs – use a beer clean glass. By using that term, I’m not just paying lip service or pandering to people with obsessive compulsive cleaning disorders.

A glass that looks clean probably isn’t clean enough.  When you fill a glass with beer, bubbles stick to any dirt on the inside, making the foam collapse quickly. So glasses need to be spotlessly clean.

Here’s the dirt on how to achieve a beer clean glass:

1. Rinse your beer glass thoroughly right after you use it
2. Scrub it with a tiny amount of unscented dishwashing liquid then rinse it immediately in hot water
3. For true beer-ophiles: use a sink full of hot water, a couple of heaped tablespoons of baking soda and a dedicated dish brush to scrub the rim and reach right to the bottom of the glass
4. Air-dry the glass on a dish rack after rinsing. Never towel dry your beer glass as that can leave traces of soap, oil and lint
5. Store your glass upside down on a clean surface, in a dust-free environment away from unpleasant odours, dirt and grease

By keeping things clean, going easy on the lipstick (that’s you, girls!) and thinking twice before scoffing a packet of peanuts with your pint, you are more likely to enjoy a good looking and great tasting beer.

Roll on December!

Till next time, cheers and beers,

Beth

If you’d asked me a few years ago to picture my perfect birthday treat, I’d have fantasised about being whisked away to the dreamy shores of Akaroa or the spectacular scenery of central Otago.

Who’d have thought that on my 30^th milestone I’d rather be mucking about in the garden laying paving stones with my patient partner?

I’m certainly taking the shift into the “dirty 30s” literally because suddenly I can’t get enough of this gardening thing. And while it’s way out of character for a Gen X like me, I’m not alone.  Suddenly it’s much more common for people to get back into the garden and grow their own in the good old Kiwi do-it-yourself way our parents did.

Does this home-grown trend mean we’ll soon be baking biscuits, making our own clothes, and brewing our own beer again? I couldn’t sew on a button if my life depended on it and my ‘fail-proof fudge’ always flops. But if we’re turning the clock back for a bit of home brewing…I’m in.

There’s something to be said for becoming Head Brewer in your own back yard. Home brewing has one vital ingredient you can’t buy in a commercial beer – the sense of satisfaction you get from creating something yourself. 

But if you’re not careful, any number of DIY disasters can instantly destroy that magical feeling when it comes to tasting time.

My dad was an enthusiastic home brewer, so I know all about exploding bottles of bath-tub booze – pungent, yeasty beers that knock your socks off and leave you with one hell of a headache (sorry Dad, no offence intended!). Brewing’s certainly not easy to master so if you want to give it a go, here are some tips to help you avoid having to hide (drink) your mistakes.

1. Keep it simple and follow directions:

Buy a start-up brew kit with prepared wort and dried yeast. Follow the step-by-step instructions and in a few hours your brew will be underway.  (Men may find this part difficult – I’ve never understood why ‘manual’ contains the word man.)

2. Keep it clean:

Bacteria and wild yeast lurk everywhere, waiting to infect your beer and destroy its flavour. So clean and sterilise your brewing equipment thoroughly. Make sure you rinse off all traces of detergent as it affects the surface tension of your brew and gives you a flat, unattractive beer with poor head retention. Rinse equipment with a chlorine-based steriliser as close as possible – within an hour at the most – to when you’ll use it. Then rinse the equipment with clean tap water three to five times just before you use it so the steriliser won’t kill your brewing yeast!

3. Keep it fresh:

Fresher yeast means faster fermentation and better beer so check its best-before date.  If you’re using yeast powder, try pre-hydrating it in half a cup of warm tap water (around 30°C) and covering it with gladwrap no more than 40 mins before pitching (adding the yeast to the fermenter).  A bit of vigorous stirring when pitching helps to aerate the yeast before fermentation starts.  This preparation reduces the ‘lag phase’ which gives your yeast a head start on nasties like wild yeasts and airborne bacteria.

4. Keep your cool:

During fermentation, yeast consumes the sugars in the wort and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide.  Yeast is a living organism, so it performs best in its comfort zone – around 18-25°C.  If you keep the wort within this temperature range before pitching the yeast and during the whole fermentation process, the yeast will perform better and your beer will taste better. If you’re making a standard 22-litre batch, you’ll need two litres of boiling water to 20 litres of cool water to achieve 18-25°C. During fermentation the brew will warm up so leaving your fermenter on a concrete floor or beside a brick wall will help stabilise the fermenting temperature. The more technically minded (like my Dad), can use an old fridge with a temperature control.

5. Keep it clear:

Home brews tend to be very cloudy but you can easily improve their clarity by using finings. Dissolve the finings sachet in a cup of hot water and gently stir into the brew after fermentation is complete (when Specific Gravity is constant for two days – usually around 1010). The finings ionise suspended particles – most importantly the yeast – in the brew. The particles then clump together and drop to the bottom of the vessel.

6. Keep it:

When you’ve bottled your brew, store it in a cool room for several weeks so it matures for a smoother flavour and improved clarity. You can experiment with how long your store your batch to suit your palate, but letting it condition for at least eight weeks before you taste it will pay off. If it smells of sulphur, leave it for one to two more weeks.

7. Keep trying:

Experimenting, learning from your mistakes, and loads of perseverance are all essential if you want to master home brewing. So is seeking some expert help. The website realbeer.co.nz lists more than 28 home brew clubs and 36 specialty shops in NZ alone. Or you could flick through these books for inspiration: Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide, The Complete Guide to Beer and Brewing by Laurie Strachan, and my favourite – Homebrewing for Dummies by Marty Nachel.

Whether you choose to brew, bake, sew or grow your own, dabbling in some domestic DIY can be intensely satisfying.

I might have taken Dad’s back-yard brewing escapades for granted a few years ago, but these days I’m paying close attention to his advice about the best place to plant my cherry tomatoes and how to lay a solid foundation for the pavers.  At 30, I can still learn a few new tricks from an old dog.

Till next time, cheers and beers,

Beth

Talk about brewing up a storm… it seems this year’s taste of winter weather has been full strength, bitter, served ice cold and readily available throughout New Zealand.  And did we sample one hell of a batch on our road trip across the alps to Monteith’s Brewery a few weeks back!

It was meant to be a quick two-hour jaunt over Arthur’s Pass to Baz’s farewell.  AKA ‘Mr Monteith’s, Barrie Calder was hanging up his overalls after 23 years of crafting some of NZ’s best beers.  His send-off promised to be the West Coast shindig of the year.  As you can imagine, with an invitation to the brewery bar, even severe weather warnings, icy blizzard-like conditions and intermittent road closures weren’t going to keep our convoy of brewers away.

Perhaps we should have heeded the ominous ‘Chains Essential’ signpost at the outset of our trip. 

We were soon trapped in heavy snow, in the middle of nowhere, with no phone coverage, no beer, only two mandarins and a squashed chocolate fish (desperately salvaged from the bottom of Hailey’s handbag) The forecast for our evening savouring a few quiet ales in the rustic charm of the Monteith’s bar was looking bleak.  Eleven hours of igloo incarceration and several prayers to Ninkasi, (the Sumerian goddess of brewing) later, a snow plough and brief reprieve in the weather helped us escape to freedom.

Never was Barrie’s cheeky grin or the out-stretched pint of Monteith’s Doppelbock Winter Ale so welcome – proof that there’s nothing like a robust, big-bodied brew, warm and rich in flavour to melt the iciest winter mood..  

An ice-breaker or two later, we were still ‘testing’ this synergy between beer style and season.  Of course, as Barrie pointed out, the concept is nothing new. Beer’s seasonality is steeped in tradition. Ritual festivities have celebrated our seasons since the dawn of time.  Sometime back then (probably around 4000BC) brews were born to give thanks for the bounty of autumn’s final harvest, the Winter Solstice, the new life of spring and the nurturing sunshine of summer.  Minus the virgin sacrifice, it’s great to see many brewers today still craft to this calendar, creating sought-after seasonal releases.

Some of the most renowned seasonals are those of the Fatherland.  Marzen and Oktoberfestbier are sweetish, spicy, amber-red lagers traditionally served at Munich’s legendary Oktoberfest.  In the days before refrigeration they were brewed in March, Europe’s spring time.  Stored and matured through the summer they were then consumed at the end of September at the Oktoberfest in a symbolic welcoming of autumn.

Spring is my favourite time of year. I will never forget the warm, relaxing afternoon when fellow brewer Kylie and I sipped witbier in a Belgian bier garden in Bruges. While it may not be classified as a seasonal, this style of ‘white’ beer is spring in a glass.  It is made with varying proportions of mainly wheat and barley. Usually pale, cloudy and refreshing, it has a tart, fruity taste and pronounced flavours of banana, cloves and coriander.  For springtime it’s a beer that is super thirst-quenching and with its sharp acidity it proved to be a perfect match for the bowl of mussels we devoured.

It’s certainly no coincidence that most kiwi beer fridges are packed with well-chilled, light, refreshing ‘lawnmower lagers’ in the height of summer.  There’s a close association with bbqs, beaches and back yard cricket and this international, relatively mild ‘pilsner’ style is part of a longstanding hot-weather tradition.  The genuine pilsner has its origins in the Bohemian town of Pilsen, now part of the Czech Republic, and this golden lager is delicate, flavourful, aromatic and appetising.  It has a sharp, clean bitterness and flowery aromatics of Saaz hops. With high carbonation and a subtle sulphur bite in the finish, it’s usually my first summertime selection.  Ahhh … to dream of summer.

Back at the brewery bar, heavy hail hitting the windows, we were still yarning about the weather.  As the Winter Ale continued to flow, I was definitely agreeing with Barrie … this colder weather begs for beers with full, comforting maltiness.  Strong porters, stouts and bock beers are ideal.  Bocks have a smoothness developed over months of cold aging and their moderate bitterness is balanced with full-bodied caramel, toasty flavours.  With a 6 – 8% alcohol content, it’s no wonder this style is named after a head-banging goat.  And at a higher octane level they are best served at warmer temperatures of 8 – 10°C)  so their rich and spicy characters shine through, unencumbered by gum-tingling cold.

The next morning we were all thawed out after a generous dose of West Coast hospitality. The late night knees up of Barrie’s farewell, and another taste of the impassable Pass on the return trip home, left some feeling just a little under the weather.

Till next time, cheers and beers,

Beth

Junk mail usually has me diving for my delete button. One thing I can’t stand is having my inbox jammed up with cheap jokes.

But I thought this one was priceless.

And the way oil prices are going up, it’s enough to drive you to drink.  By that I mean savouring a few quiet ales and keeping the car, with its thirsty petrol tank, in the garage.

But even the price of a pint has been pushed up a bit (around 6c a bottle, I think).  Skyrocketing prices for raw materials, packaging and fuel have put a fair bit of pressure on beanies’ wallets.  Breweries have seen malt prices alone increase by up to 50% in the last 12 months – and ironically it’s all thanks to global demands for bio-fuels!

Of course, Dr Cullen’s annual excise tax hike also adds to those beer costs…

Speaking of which, now that we’re resigned to the reality of his recent block-of-cheese budget, it could be time to give some serious thought to how to spend that “generous” $16 a week … and I can think of no better way than taking the term literally and buying a few sumptuous blocks of cheese to pair with a fine beer or two.

Beer and cheese?  Isn’t this trespassing into wine territory?  Cheap cask wines, stale crackers and pickled onions at the local wine and cheese sports fundraiser.  Not so.  In fact, as Garrett Oliver, author of The Brewmaster’s Table; http://www.garrettoliver.com/, so eloquently states: “The dirty little secret of the wine world is that most wine, especially red wine, is a very poor match for cheese … Beer can do a lot better – it can find such harmony with cheese that you won’t know where the beer ends and the cheese begins”. 

And being the dedicated, hard-worker that I am, I undertook some rigorous “scientific research” to validate his statement.

For fear of sounding like an advertisement I won’t divulge the brand names from my little nibble and sip experiment, but simply some tips I learned that may prove useful for your own experimental tipple or two:

• Try the cheese at room temperature to enhance its flavour (and while you’re at it, don’t drink the beer too cold either!)
• There is an abundance of vocabulary for describing cheese, from delicate, fruity and sweet to pungent, sharp and tangy … the list goes on.  For beers it’s useful to think of hop bitterness, malt sweetness or breadiness, the level of carbonation, and other blissful flavours derived from fermentation

• The secret to matching is finding either a complement or contrast that works best with these flavours

• Try young, fresh cheeses with delicate beers.  Fresh goat’s cheese is superb with wheat beer.  Both the beer and cheese offer fruitiness and acidity

• A full-bodied, malty beer works well with nutty, aged cheeses such as gouda and gruyere.  I tried both varieties with doppelbock and brown ale and the result was heavenly!

• Tart, sharp cheeses such as cheddar are a great match with highly hopped bitter beers – perfect with an Indian Pale Ale

• And those ‘mouldy, grotesque-looking’ blues are divine with strong sweet abbey-style beers that give a warming glow and have complex, fruity and spicy aromatics

I could go on…..

But from this sampling it seems that the beer and cheese thing makes some sense.  If you think about it:

• Both beer and cheese are traditionally off the farm and are derived from grasses (a bit of a stretch, I know – but after my third beer match the logic was there somewhere…) 
• They are both crafted, fermented and matured 
• They even complement each other by sharing some aromas and flavours.  As our expert Oliver notes: “They balance sweetness and acidity with fruitiness and fermentation flavours.”

Above all, what I love about beer is that it offers cheese something that wine cannot – zingy, sparkling carbonation to lift and cleanse the palate, truly harmonising the match.

All this talk of beer and cheese is teasing my tastebuds. So it’s time I  knocked off for a pint.  As I left the gas-guzzling car at home this morning, I guess I’ll be thumbing a ride with one of the brewery boys…

Till next time, cheers and beers,

Beth

It’s amazing how many people expect a brewer to be an old bearded bloke with a beer belly and boozer’s nose. Or if you put the words brewing and women together in a sentence, how many guys conjure up images of gorgeous scantily-clad chicks brewing beer in mini-skirts like the legendary Tui advertisements.

Well. I’m neither. If only you could see the reality – a pint-sized brewer, gumboots and overalls, not yet 30. Not a beard or a mini-skirt in sight. 

But beer belly or not, I do love beer.I love brewing beer. I love drinking beer. I love talking beer. Yip, I’m a beer-ophile. And now a beer-blogger. Well, I’ll give it a go at least.

I found my appreciation for beer at Massey University, where I gained an honours degree in Food Technology. But it would be fair to say I’d liked the stuff a long time before that. I think I was four-years-old when I was first subjected to my dad’s homebrew. He used to call the head “tiger’s milk” – and growing up, I always assumed that’s where Tiger Beer came from.

I joined DB as a trainee brewer at Auckland’s Waitemata Brewery. I was 22, and weighed 42 kilograms. As a “baby brewer” I learned how to tip 50kg sacks of malt. I also earned an International Diploma in Brewing Technology – and where the tasting room was.

I guess I must have done ok, because before long I was shipped off to the Monteith’s Brewery on the West Coast to scrub fermentation tanks by hand.

Today? Well, eight years and 80 million litres of beer later, I’m DB’s National Beer Quality Manager, based at the Mainland Brewery in Timaru. From baby brewer, to mistress brewer!

Does all of that make me a beer expert? I’m not so sure. I mean, what is an “expert” and what qualifies someone to become an expert on beer?

When in doubt, consult ‘Wikitionary’ (it’s that y-generation thing – you do everything on-line). It defines expert as:

 – n. expert A person with extensive knowledge or ability in a given subject.

But what type of knowledge or ability?  Do you need to be the world’s best brewer? A leading beer critic? An international beer judge? A Trappist monk? A research scientist unfolding the intricacies of fermentation and yeast metabolism?

Or can “beer expert” refer to the humble beer drinker?  The faithful beer-ophile who loves to pour a pint, relax with mates and yarn about beer for hours?  Going by the definition, that takes ability – drinking ability.

And what about the persistent, slightly eccentric homebrewer who tinkers away in the shed experimenting with each batch?  That takes knowledge – knowledge of what not to do next time!  How about the elusive traveller always on a beer odyssey of foreign brews and beer festivals? That takes extensive “sampling” ability.  And the publican, the one who perfects the pour of a pint like an art-form? That takes both ability and knowledge.

Guy or girl, young or old (and definitely old enough to be drinking of course!) scientist or drinker, expert or not – does it really matter? 

I think what’s more important than the beer expert is the beer enthusiast, and that’s an easy one to define:

– n. enthusiast A person filled with or guided by enthusiasm intensity of feeling; excited interest or eagerness.

To me, the definition of a beer enthusiast allows us to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It’s like beer itself. Unpretentious. Accessible. Enjoyable. And that’s my intention as I go on this journey from Brewster to Bloggerette – to share some of my opinions, tips, beer news and brews as a fellow beer enthusiast.

So log in over the next few months as I blog about beer, post your comments, throw in your own ideas and read all about . . .

• Beer School 101 – a beer professor’s guide to the basics of beer
• Tapping into beer – how to pour the perfect pint and become a self-professed ‘beerista’ 
• Raising the bar – the essence of a great bar and how beer can become the star attraction
• Coming to your senses – how to really  appreciate beer and  tantalize your taste buds  
• Inviting beer to dinner – tips for matching beer to food
• Tui-girl – fact or fiction?  Who really wears the pants when it comes to brewing beer
• Handle with Care – tips for delivering the best of beer experiences for every drinker
• Mythbusters – the truth about beer bellies, health and our amber liquid

And plenty of other topics that pop up along the way.

Till next time, cheers and beers,

Beth.